Advertising signage is utilized to impart advertising information to people, pedestrians, drivers, passengers, and an audience generally within view of the signage. A billboard is one type of such advertising signage. A typical billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure usually found in high traffic areas, such as alongside a busy road. Advertising signage often shows large, ostensibly witty slogans, and distinctive visuals. In high-density cities, billboards get a lot of exposure with installation in highly visible areas. Billboards are often an ideal place to advertise because the passing public who use the roadways are presented with large, vivid advertisement displays that leave impressions. Rather than an advertiser having to move adverting content to the audience, the audience moves to the advertising content.
Electronic and vinyl posters represent another common form of advertising signage. These types of advertisements are located chiefly in commercial and industrial areas, on primary and secondary arterial roads. Smaller than billboards, posters are principally viewed by residents and commuter traffic, with some pedestrian exposure. Smaller, outdoor advertising displays, such as vinyl or electric posters, are usually prevalent at bus stops, on both the inside and outside of buses, airports, train stations, subways, along busy walkways, in storefronts and other such locations. Smaller displays of electronic and printed matter are also present on smart phones, in taxis, at gas pumps, and in retail stores.
Billboards and poster content is static if printed on paper or other material. Recently, however, the advertising industry began using electronic billboards and digital displays, generally. These digital billboards appear primarily on major highways, expressways or principal arterials, and command high-density consumer exposure, mostly to vehicular traffic. Digital billboards provide greater visibility to viewers than static, content-based display because of the digital billboard's commanding size and the advertiser's ability to perform customizable updates on the digital billboard. Not only can many advertisers share a single digital billboard each month, but an advertiser can change their content in near real-time. These new types of displays are also capable of imparting different advertisements on a single digital display, with each display changing content advertisements over a period of a few minutes.
Electronic billboards and electronic signs are ubiquitous in major cities such as Las Vegas, New York and Tokyo, where large, electronic signs deliver dynamic advertising content to those who view the digital display. Even though the display technologies for these digital billboards may vary widely, all electronic signs and billboards require some type of content source to generate the images presented on the display. Depending on regulatory and technical considerations, this presented content can be, for example, a series of static slides, periodic postings, and/or in some cases, a sequence of broadcast-quality video and animation.
The advertiser's lack of knowledge, however, regarding the use and updates of digital signs is problematic as advertisers do not know how many people actually view the signage and absorb its content. Even if an advertiser knows how many people view an advertisement, the advertiser has no way of knowing if the content of that advertisement made an impression on the viewer and whether it is worthwhile for the advertiser to continue investing in that advertisement, or in that advertisement at that location.